Tag Archives: Islam

Jew of the Week: Sarmad

The Persian Jew Who Inspired India

18th century illustration of Dara Shikoh (right) learning with Sarmad

Sa’id Sarmad Kashani (c. 1590-1661) was born in Armenia to a religious Persian-Jewish family of merchants. At a young age, he translated the Torah into Farsi. He later took up studies under Muslim scholars and mystics like Mulla Sadra and Mir Findiriski. Some believe he nominally converted to Islam at this time, but remained a practicing Jew. On one merchant trip to Mughal India, Sarmad met a Hindu scholar called Abhay Chand. The two learned about each other’s faiths, and it is believed Chand converted to Judaism. Sarmad eventually gave up his wealth and became an ascetic wandering mystic. He and Chand traveled and taught together all across India, eventually settling in Delhi. Sarmad made a great name for himself as a poet and philosopher. Over 300 of his short poems have survived to this day. He also wrote the entry for “Judaism” in the 17th-century Dabistan, an anthology explaining all of the world’s religions. The Mughal crown prince Dara Shikoh (whose father built the Taj Mahal) was so impressed by Sarmad’s wisdom that he became a disciple, too. Sarmad went on to devise a new mystical system, drawing on Judaism, Sufi Islam, and Hinduism. Countless followers and disciples across India learned from him. However, when Dara Shikoh was deposed by his brother, the new Mughal emperor executed Shikoh and all of his associates, including Sarmad. The emperor demanded that Sarmad recite the Shahadah (proclaiming “there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet”), but Sarmad refused and was beheaded. According to legend, Sarmad then picked up his own head and walked away—and the new emperor never had a peaceful night’s sleep ever again! Sarmad’s tomb became a popular pilgrimage site and is still revered as a holy place in India today. His story inspired numerous Indian leaders, including Abul Kalam Azad, a colleague of Gandhi (and his predecessor as president of the Indian National Congress). Azad once described himself as a modern-day Sarmad. Scholars see “Sarmad the Jew” as a key figure in the history of religions; a mystic that influenced the development of Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism; as well as an early pioneer of interfaith dialogue.

Passover Begins Monday Night – Chag Sameach!

Those We Are Still Missing

Secrets of the Ten Plagues & the Passover Seder

Words of the Week

In the chronicles of world history, no question has managed to capture the world’s interest for very long; a few decades seems to be the outer limit for consideration of even the most pressing global problems. But the world has been busy trying to figure out the question of the Jews for thousands of years – and they have not tired of the discussion! In every generation, the old questions arise anew: Are the Jews good or bad? Do the Jews bring benefit to the world or do they cause problems? Why, it is as if we have just appeared on the scene – as if the world has never before known what a Jew looks like!
– Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz (1875-1936)

Jews of the Week: Sarah of Yemen and Qasmuna bint Ismail

Great Arabic Poets

The single surviving poem of Sarah of Yemen

Sarah (fl. 6th-7th century) was born to the Jewish Banu Qurayza clan of the Arabian Peninsula, in the pre-Islamic era when much of the peninsula was inhabited by Jews. Her family originally hailed from what is today Yemen. They lived in Yathrib, the flourishing oasis of the Banu Qurayza Jews. In 622, Muhammad entered the city, and in 627 he annihilated the Banu Qurayza tribe (and renamed the city “Medina”, making it the first capital of the Islamic empire). Sarah was a poet, and one of her poems describing the devastation of Yathrib has survived. It was first printed in a 10th-century anthology of Arabic poems called Kitab al-Aghani. She wrote: “By my life, there is a people not long in Du Hurud; obliterated by the wind. Men of Qurayza destroyed by Khazraji swords and lances; We have lost, and our loss is so grave…” According to legend, she fought in the battle against Muhammad and was killed. (In a little-known quirk of history, Muhammad actually took two of the Jewish captives for himself as wives, and one of them is even considered a “mother of Islam”!) Incredibly, Sarah of Yemen may be history’s oldest and first known Arabic poet.

Another famous Jewish-Arab poet was Qasmuna bint Ismail (fl. 11th-12th century), who lived in Andalusia (today’s Spain). She was the child of a wealthy and well-educated Jew, who made sure his daughter was literate and taught her the art of poetry. Qasmuna is the only Sephardic Jewish female poet whose work has survived. Three of her poems were published in a 15th century anthology. In one of her poems she wrote: “Always grazing, here in this garden; I’m dark-eyed just like you, and lonely; We both live far from friends, forsaken; patiently bearing our fate’s decree.” In another she describes reaching the age of marriage and the struggle of finding the right partner: “I see an orchard, Where the time has come; For harvesting, But I do not see; A gardener reaching out a hand, Towards its fruits; Youth goes, vanishing; I wait alone, For somebody I do not wish to name.” She has also been referred to as “Qasmuna the Jewess” and “Xemone”.

The Guardian Angels of Israel

Back When Palestinians Insisted There’s No Such Thing as Palestine

Words of the Week

In Judaism the word for “education” (chinukh) is the same as for “consecration”. Is your child being consecrated for a life of beneficence for Israel and humanity?
– Rabbi Dr. J.H. Hertz, former Chief Rabbi of Britain

Jew of the Week: Benjamin of Tudela

The Jew Who Inspired Marco Polo

A 19th century engraving of ‘Benjamin of Tudela in the Sahara’

Binyamin MiTudela (1130-1173) was born to a religious Sephardic family in the town of Tudela, now in Spain. In 1165, he set out for what is believed to be a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He had a larger objective in mind as well, since this was at the height of the Crusades and a perilous time for anyone to make a pilgrimage, especially Jews. Binyamin wanted to explore all the Jewish communities along the way and to create a detailed map showing the route one should take and where a Jew can find safe refuge on his journey. This would open the door for more Jews to take a trip to their beloved Holy Land. A lover of history and geography, he also wished to leave a record of what the Jewish (and non-Jewish) world looked like in the 12th century. Binyamin recorded all that he saw in his Sefer haMasa’at, “Book of Travels”, also known as Masa’aot Binyamin. His adventures were so popular they were soon translated into just about every European language. Today, the book is among the most important historical documents for scholars of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as well as of Jewish and Muslim history. A great deal of what we know about that era, including the daily lives of simple people, comes from his book. Some believe that it was this book that may have inspired another, more famous, adventurer about a century later: Marco Polo. Binyamin’s travels took him to France and the Italian Peninsula, then to Greece and across what is today Turkey to the Near East, then to Persia, back around the Arabian Peninsula, to Egypt, and returning to Iberia by way of North Africa. While in Ethiopia, he describes a large Jewish community, which was a key source of information allowing modern-day Ethiopian Jews to be accepted by the State of Israel and the rabbinate. He is possibly the first writer to detail the community of Al-Hashishin, better known as “Assassins”, as well as among the first to describe the Druze. In Posquières, he meets and describes the great Raavad. In Rome, he sees a Rabbi Yechiel, who is an advisor to the Pope, and has “free access to the Pope’s palace”! While in Baghdad, he writes of the Caliph, who is “like a Pope” for Muslims, and that the Caliph is fluent in Hebrew and knows Torah law extensively, though he rules with an iron fist. All in all, Benjamin of Tudela visited and wrote about some 300 cities. Today, there are streets named after him in Jerusalem and in Tudela, Spain, where there is also a high school bearing his name.

Words of the Week

One day I learned that dreams exist to come true, and since that day I do not sleep for rest. I sleep just to dream.
– Walt Disney